Abstract
This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Based on a review of the literature, this article provides an introduction to the history of sociology teaching in UK undergraduate medical education. Aimed at an international community and at individuals either new to the field or with a general interest, our objectives are to situate sociology teaching in UK medical education within its broader historical and political setting, to highlight the work of past social science teachers, to draw attention to the modern day context and to ask: 'what now'? We are particularly interested in the changing role of the sociologist in teaching medical sociology.The behavioral and social sciences (BSS) were introduced to UK medical training in 1944, 34 years after the Flexner reforms (which although originating from the United States impacted significantly on the UK). From the 1970s UK academics with a responsibility for teaching medical students made significant progress with respect to: promoting sociology within medical education, designing teaching, and observing where barriers and opportunities to learning lie. This activity slowed however between the mid 1980s and late 1990s when medical training shifted from being discipline based to integrated and clinically focused. Following the 1990s' sociology teaching became dispersed throughout medical training and the responsibility of multiple stakeholders.Since the new millennium it has been recognized globally that trainees graduate from medical school unequipped to cope with the rapidly changing social context of medicine. Our paper concludes that coupled with new pedagogies, integrated curricula have given rise to many exciting opportunities for sociology teaching in UK medical education but also to new challenges including the repetition and misinterpretation of content. A systematic examination is therefore required of what works and what does not. Aspects of this activity are particularly suited to those individuals with an academic background in sociology who remain as teachers in medical education whom we argue have much to gain from working collectively.
Highlights
The aim of this article is to increase awareness of the context in which sociology teachers working in UK medical education operate, by situating it within a broader historical and political setting and highlighting the work of social science teachers on whose legacy we build
We describe successive policy developments in medical education in relation to sociology teaching in the UK and what has been said about which aspects of sociology should be included as content
The overarching question guiding our enquiry was, ‘what might be learned from the history of sociology teaching in medical education that might benefit our practice today’? Using the database EBSCO, we identified papers by combining the terms ‘sociology’, and ‘social science’ with ‘medical education’, ‘medical curriculum’ and ‘medical school’
Summary
The aim of this article is to increase awareness of the context in which sociology teachers working in UK medical education operate, by situating it within a broader historical and political setting and highlighting the work of social science teachers on whose legacy we build. As traditional sociological content has become the business of multiple stakeholders, boundaries have become blurred (Delamont & Atkinson, 2009) and there is concern that sociology with its carefully honed theoretical tools and its rich legacy of empirically derived patient informed insights, has become ‘diluted’ within medical education and ‘relegated’ to the side lines or ‘made relative’ (Scambler, 2009; Russell et al 2004) Shades of this argument, can be seen in the literature which suggests that teachers of sociology (and psychology) still perceive there to be a lack of time and space in the medical curriculum (Russell et al 2004, and in the US, Satterfield, 2004). We need to make alliances with other academic and clinical lecturers in order to ensure support for the project of the social sciences and at institutional level, we should seek to actively serve on committees, attend working groups and gain promotion Such tasks are undoubtedly overwhelming for individual teachers tasked to undertake sociology teaching and other generic responsibilities. Given that many sociologists are employed on teaching focused contracts, networks including researching socilogists provide a valuable link to Professional sociology (Scott, 2005)
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